Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky, the 39-year-old man leading Ukraine’s drone division, is a Warhammer guy. A profile of Sukharevsky for The Economist sets the scene.
“The air smells of fresh paint, coffee and shisha tobacco, to which Colonel Sukharevsky appears addicted,” the Economist said. “Wires, drone-boxes and computers lie scattered over the floor. Swords, an extensive collection of daggers, and Warhammer models, which he glues together in spare evenings, complete the eccentric image of a modern-day Cossack hetman.”
Sukharevsky sits in a gaming chair with custom embroidery. A lot of people get their gamer tags sewn into the heads of their chairs, but not Sukharevsky. He had “See it, shoot it” stitched into the chair, a reference to something he told his soldiers back in 2014 when he ordered them to fire against an early wave of Russian proxies invading Ukraine.
Warhammer is a British wargame where players paint miniatures and battle them in lengthy tabletop campaigns. There’s a fantasy version and a sci-fi version which is set in a far-flung future of 40,000 years from now. The Economist doesn’t specify which version Sukharevsky has models for, but Warhammer 40K is far more popular.
Warhammer 40K depicts a nightmarish future where humanity is swaddled in fascism and war is a constant of life. Humanity is a galaxy-spanning Empire that toils in genocidal wars in service to a corpse emperor. It was once a niche hobby but has become increasingly popular, even among politicians and soldiers. James Cleverly, Britain’s Home Secretary, is a big fan. During interviews at his home, Cleverly’s Sisters of Battle—a kind of gun-wielding warrior nun—are on display behind him.
In Ukraine, drones are the future of war. Quadcopters and FPV drones have helped Kyiv fight Russia to a stalemate. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense created the drone command, the first of its kind in the world, and put Sukharevsky in charge of it on June 10. Sukharevsky told The Economist that drones are an important part of the war effort, but not the be-all and end-all.
Modern war is still about taking and holding territory and combined arms. In many ways, the war in Ukraine looks a lot like World War I and World War II. Soldiers have dug long lines of defensive trenches and aggressors try to push either line with mechanized infantry. Artillery pummels either side from the air. Ukraine has even dug out 140-year-old machine guns and entered them into service.
The difference now is that all this activity is aided by technology. Drones give commanders eyes in the sky and the ability to cheaply strike at enemy armor in the field. Sometimes, a Steamdeck is being used to control those old machine guns. “Military operations still depend on combined arms, and other kinds of troops will continue to be just as important,” Sukharevsky told The Economist.
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